The litigation of the case concerned complaints of the Black sea Shapsugs Islam Napso and Haret Tesheva to the Judicial board on civil cases of the Krasnodar regional court is considered for the benefit of the complainers, the “Caucasian unit” correspondent informed.

In their cassation papers they wrote that in their opinion the Central Sochi city court not lawfully and without any reasons had suspended consideration of their case about broken rights of the indigenous small people of Krasnodar Region - Shapsugs.

The session of the board on civil cases was held on August 28 under the presidency Alexander Struhov and was announced at presence of the authorized representative of the complainers on the case Zaurbek Shu. The cassation verdict to the address the Central Sochi city court will be sent by mail.

According to the authorized representative of the complainers it was their first victory in the long judicial struggle. And it just intermediated, as the complainers had achieved renewal of their case’s consideration in the same Central Sochi city court.

As “Caucasian unit” had informed earlier, Islam Napso and Haret Tesheva had had submitted their complaint to the Central Sochi city court in October of the last year. They challenged inactivity of the body of the local self-management concerning the indigenous inhabitants of the Black Sea coast of Caucasus - Shapsugs. The same month they addressed to the higher judicial instance – the board on civil cases, as the decision of the first instance did not satisfy them.

In the protested nowadays verdict of the Central Sochi city court of October 27, 2006, the federal judge Sergey Martynenko had referred that in the complaint of Islam Napso and Haret Tesheva the question was about the right of the complainers to be released of payment of the land taxes. Therefore they should not have stated about their rights and freedoms of the small indigenous people as a whole.

But in the complaint, as the representative of the complainers made comments later, the question just about the concrete land area and the tax for it could not be raised. At first they wrote as a whole: about the rights of the complainers - representatives of the small people - on their privileges, fixed by the federal law "About guarantees of the rights of the small peoples of Russian Federation". And after that, as about one of the items - about releasing of payment of the land tax.

The Judicial board on civil cases of the Krasnodar regional court invited representative of the complainers to the judicial session in January of this year. However, according to the interlocutor, there was not practically any juridical session - because in the materials there were no copies of the powers of attorney of the representative of the complainers – Zaurbek Shu.

He was invited for the second time to two sessions: one - at the end of May on Haret Tesheva’s case, and the second - in the beginning of June on Islam Napso’s case. There again the board had given up in consideration of the case saying that the copies of the same powers of attorney though were added to the cases’ materials, but nevertheless appeared to be put in the wrong order. The paper given from Haret Tesheva’s name was enclosed to Islam Napso’s case, and, accordingly, on the contrary.

For the third session of hearing of the case judge Sergey Martynenko (and he was responsible for that) managed to put the documents correctly.

At the session the authorized representative briefly told about the history of the considered case and characterized the litigation process as a judicial red tape. As to the question itself, as he said, the requirements of the complainers could not be supposed as a case only about taxes, because the complainers had addressed to the other instances, too, including the Sochi city Assembly. They called the deputies to use their right of the legislative initiative and to solve the problem of the Black sea Shapsugs according to the federal law "About guarantees of the rights of the indigenous small peoples of Russian Federation".

The letter was sent to the city deputies on July 25, 2006, the authorized representative told at session, but the Shapsugs had not been replied so far. And that fact - the silence of the Sochi city deputies – as Zaurbek Shu considered - became to the judges of Krasnodar one of the main arguments in making decision for the benefit of the complainers.

The question of “Caucasian unit” correspondent, why, in his opinion, the deputies had been keeping silent, the interlocutor answered: "What can they answer? They, as it was found out from the official replies of the other officials, have given with a legal act some tax privileges on land tenure to the indigenous small peoples of the Far North, Siberia and the Far East. And now all the other instances respond on Shapsugs’ searches approximately thus: "you are not present in the list of those peoples; as to rights of the small peoples, we have fixed them in the legal act".

But the passed legal act the Sochi deputies fixed legislatively the fact that those peoples (with every respect for them) compactly live in the territory of Sochi, conduct their traditional lifestyle, managing and crafts. They also live in that territory, though separately, but all together.

And they, those small indigenous peoples of the Far North, Siberia and the Far East, as the interlocutor mentioned, are rather numerous. But here in Sochi all of them were ‘quite busy’ - constructing yurts, graze deer, hunt for seals, white bears and so on. And all that they do on the beaches of the Black Sea coast, absolutely nearby to the peaks of the future mountain-skiing paradise.

"That was the way it was and not any other, - he emphasized. - You see from the point of view of the legislators of Sochi, the North, especially, the Far North is situated down in the south of Russia - in their city. East, first of all, the Far East is also here. As to Siberia, also it is based not further than the next street. And it is necessary to search Sochi, being guided with the geographical installations of the deputies, somewhere in the Far North, the Far East, Siberia and the Black Sea coast of the Western Caucasus".

And the deputies – and what should they do else? - go, probably, from time to time to the “their” voters being authorized legislatively by the small indigenous peoples of Sochi: scratch deer, stroke seals, ask about health of the walruses, about behavior of Usury’s tigers, about the most favourite places of hibernations of the white bears. And the national crafts cause the sharpest interest of the deputies in those pastures, Zaurbek Shu assumed.

But the one who is still really "disoriented", he supposed, is the small indigenous people of Krasnodar Region - Shapsugs. "The only one for all the deputies", - the representative of the complainers said.